The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), formerly known as the Elementary and Secondary School Civil Rights Survey, is a part of the U.S. Department of Education's (ED's) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) strategy for administering and enforcing civil rights laws in U.S. public school districts and schools, including Puerto Rico.The CRDC collects a…

While designs of professional learning have expanded exponentially beyond the required-attendance inservice day workshop model, infusing meaningful data into daily decisions and conversations has not gained as much traction. Leaders of professional learning are increasingly coming under pressure to demonstrate that evidence is not an anathema in…

A multiple case study was designed to examine the components of data literacy used by formal and informal leaders to support the work of Data Teams. Nine formal leaders and ten informal leaders constituted the participants. One overarching central question and seven subquestions guided the research. The answer to the central question, How do…

The Forum Guide to Reporting Civil Rights Data presents a variety of effective methods through which local education agencies (LEAs) report civil rights data to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. In addition, the guide provides examples of how state education agencies can voluntarily help their LEAs with Civil Rights Data…

Background: This research review provides an analysis of current research related to school and district data use, with a particular focus on identifying key characteristics of schools and districts with effective "data using cultures." The research review identifies and analyzes findings in five key areas of practice: communicating…

Every student, no matter where he or she lives, deserves a great teacher. States, educator preparation programs (EPPs), and K-12 leaders must work together to ensure that all teachers are learner ready on day one in the classroom. But too often, these actors do not have access to the necessary information to fully prepare teachers for the unique…

The purpose of this study was to learn from educational stakeholders what characteristics they like and dislike when viewing graphs of post-school outcomes data. We conducted six, 1-hour focus groups with teachers, administrators, and parents in which we distributed four stimuli graphs--horizontal grouped bars, horizontal stacked bars, vertical…

Public reporting makes data about schools and districts--including enrollment, student performance, teacher effectiveness, and more--available to the public. These data never include information that could be used to identify individuals and are critical to meeting the information needs of parents, educators, administrators, policymakers, and…

The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has been focused since 2005 on advocating for states to build robust state longitudinal data systems (SLDS). While states have made great progress in their data infrastructure, and should continue to emphasize this work, data systems alone will not improve outcomes. It is time for both DQC and states to focus on…

Data are more than just test scores, and by effectively accessing and using different types of data--such as attendance, grades, and course-taking--teachers, parents, and school and district leaders can help ensure that every student is on a path for success every day, not just at the end of the school year. The 10 State Actions to Ensure…

As data as a scholarly object continues to grow in importance in the research community, librarians are undertaking increasing responsibilities regarding data management and curation. New library initiatives include assisting researchers in finding data sets for reuse; locating and hosting repositories for required archiving; consultations on…

Data literacy is recognized as a critically important skill in today's society, but thinking with and about data is often ignored in K-12 curricula. The Thinking With Data (TWD) project advocates that data literacy is a skill that should be addressed in an interdisciplinary manner. This article provides an overview of the TWD curriculum for middle…

A major effort of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems over the past few years has been the development of information Exchange Procedures (IEP) for a broad spectrum of colleges and universities. The motivation for this effort is the strong belief that the exchange and comparative analysis of data will lead to better…

The use of graphics as an effective method of data communication is discussed for various types of research reports in higher education. The need to display information in a concise format and the importance of the stratification of data are stressed. The authors illustrate and discuss some of the types of graphs that can be used to communicate…

The document summarizes research on the process of diffusing innovations in vocational education. The purpose was to: (1) determine if empirical dimensions of three conceptual domains (innovation, client, and strategy) exist; (2) if they exist, to identify them; (3) to describe them with empirical information; and (4) to relate the dimensions to…